The roomsRoom II
A Chair by the Window
Presence, measured in empty seats
A chair placed beside a window is a sentence half spoken. Someone sat there to wait, to read, to watch the road for a familiar walk. These photographs are about the people who are not in them.
His Chair
The first photograph in this series, made the week after the funeral. I did not move the chair even an inch.
Middle of the Room
Someone pulled this chair into the centre to hear better, or to be heard. It never went back to the wall.
Two, Facing Out
A couple sat here every evening for forty-one years, according to their son. Their chairs still face the same way.
Sunday Table
Eight chairs, and on most Sundays now, two people. They still lay the table for everyone.
The French Window
The house was being sold. I asked for ten minutes alone in the dining room before the movers came. This is the ninth minute.
Folded, Waiting
Chairs kept for guests who are always expected and rarely arrive. Hope, stacked neatly against the wall.
Behind the series
My grandfather had a chair by the window that nobody else sat in, even years after he died. We would walk around it the way you walk around a person.
When I began photographing empty chairs I realised every family has one. This series is for all of them.
